Imagine a feline, red-striped face, golden eyes like citrines, a wiry lithe body, small furry lozenges all over her belly, a white gleaming breast, an utterly adoring expression -- No, you goof, I'm not talking about my girlfriend! I'm talking about my cat, Tabasca, who in recent years has perhaps become, after all, my best girl. She is not "a silly pet," but a spy in my house might think so.

When I came to live in my Son's apartment seven years ago, Tabasca was, as nearly as I can tell, about two years-old, certainly a young grown female. If that is correct, she is nine years-young today. On my first entrances, she was only a red streak going, I imagined, out my Son's perpetually open window. Later, he showed me that, on the contrary, she maintained various roosts in closets and high shelves where she retreated whenever anyone "foreign" came to visit.

It took several weeks before she would stay in the same room with me, several more before I could touch her. Her story was that my Son and his former girlfriend (a Phd. in The Psychology of Pain), had rescued the cat, who had been abused, from a county shelter, but they could never get very close to her. An unfortunate attempt to clip her nails sealed an ambivalent relationship between them.

Gradually, the cat began to hang out (or hide out) in my room. After I received "title" to her by default, I started to feed her there. She had always eaten dry food, and in a generous area, I set out a cat box, food and water. And I named her Tabasca because of her coloring and temperament.

Tabasca is on "Ossie," originally from the Himalayan Mountains, I believe. She is beautiful, loving, and quite active, in spite of the fact she has limited space in which to exercise. In the springtime, she loves to sprint out the door, down the hall, into the dining room, where she makes a spectacular vertical leap at a real or imaginary fly. As she grows older, the leap is not quite so high, but she keeps in practice.

It must be a curious life for Tabasca. As far as I know, she has only seen one other cat since her kittenhood, seen a dog just once. Except for a couple of visits to the vet for check ups, she has seldom been out of the apartment, never beyond the floor below us. If our door is open, she likes to creep out, reconnoiter on her belly the jambs of other doors on hallway, sniffing the exotic odors emanating from them. Once when no one was looking, she went down the stairs to the second floor. When I realized she was gone, I rather frantically pounded down the stairs, where I found her piteously crying at the door of the apartment directly below ours.

I like to say that Tabasca is the best citizen in our place. She is clean, loyal, patient, loving, and always tries to be comforting. She loves to sleep on the bed with me, usually by my side until I nod off, and for the rest of the night at the foot of the bed, out of the way of my thrashing hulk. It was touching (and a little saddening) when I first had to go away for a few days. The night I returned, she slept the entire night right by my face. She woke me up around three in the morning with her steady loud purring.

We are selling cat food here, and so I should say a bit about her diet. Unlike my boyhood cat, Tippy the Manx, she has never eaten table food, nor, as far as I'm aware, has she had moist cat food. Occasionally, at Thanksgiving or Christmas, I give her some roast chicken or turkey, and I notice she comes out of the bedroom whenever one of us is cooking a fowl. Mostly, she eats a variety of dry food. I feed her Trader Joe's Premium Dry Cat Food in a variety of flavors (Chicken, Beef, Lamb, Salmon) because of its purity (guaranteed no artificial flavors, preservatives or other harmful chemicals).

And Friskies products -- because they are readily picked up at my nearby Safeway.

I am generally on foot, and when I shop, I have to limit what I buy to what I can carry. Thus, I purchase the small 16.2 pound boxes in the flavors listed above. In the last two years, I have begun to bring home Friskies Senior Cat Food and Friskies Dental Diet. The former prepared food because I remember how canned and ordinary cat foods, high in ash content, destroyed the kidneys of Tiger the Hunter, my last cat. The latter diet because Tippy the Manx's life was shortened at age 14 when he lost his teeth (although that was partly caused by a neighborhood hero, who smashed in one side of Tippy's face with a brick for the fun of it).

Tabasca is fond of Friskies Dental Diet in particular. I lay down a bowl of, say, the Senior Diet, and I top that off with a handful of the rather roundish yellow balls that constitutes the Friskies Dental Diet. Although my dentist expresses a doubt or two about the Diet's effectiveness, I believe it has been helpful keeping Tabasca's teeth sharp and fit. I see no evidence of dental caries or telltale plaque.

For the last three years, whenever my Grand Daughter Laversa has come to visit, Tabasca has reverted to roosting behavior. Laversa had only to come into the foyer downstairs, and Tabasca knew she was there, and was away like a bolt of orange lightning. It broke the little girl's heart.

I am happy to report that in the last few days, as Laversa is here more often now that she has graduated from pre-school, Tabasca has broken down and come up on the bed with her. Whether it is love or jealousy, I am not going to speculate upon. But Laversa is ecstatic at being able to pet her.

Nothing pleases Tabasca more than a cleaned box, fresh water, a good pet, and a tasty bowl of good flavored Friskies Senior Cat Food crowned with some crunchy Friskies Dental Diet. [Perhaps I could find a new career writing advertising copy.] In an act that I originally interpreted as indicating distress, she trots, head turned, out the door of my room and back, yowling in an inimitable fashion. I have since concluded, it is her "Ode to Joy."

I think I hear her now. Gotta go.

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NOTE: February 14, 2006 -- I shall hear Tabasca no more. She died very bravely, a victim of a move, and old age, in November of last year.

I shall miss her. She was a rare creature.

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This Epinion is part of a Write-off on "Silly Pets" shepherded by bluehawg. Please take a little time to read the contributions of the following pet-loving Epinionators:

bluehawq | surferdude7 | nikjdog | catladyfromnpt

AngelaBar | CJsMommy | jro26 | Whitty

viper1963 | KittyOKC | Third_Man | thom413

debbie26 | Cartman_2K | GinaHill | AinsleyJo

marytara | susiewho | caleo | Ali78

disartain | djsplendid | mom2girlz | Sarahlynn

nwinston | frazzledspice | pmills1210 | fostrmom2mny

ggrimes1221 | HazelWebster | char.mike | sherrylee

altaloma | jo.com | Presleysmama

nanct | micheich | sherrywilliam

bpotter1 | Sephiroth2000 | Macresarf1

PalmerLD | Patch3boys | manky





Recommended: Yes